🚀 go-pugleaf

BoF wrote:
> Can a Linux server that has  two windows ME boxes be made to do the
> following.
> 
> 1. Acts as a central repository for all files (documents, spreadsheets, etc)

Yes - using Samba

> 2. Can a MS-Outlook database be stored on the linux server and shared by the
> two windows boxes.

MS Outlook is an email client, not a database format. You'd better 
explain what you mean here.

> 3. Act as a gateway to the wider world with dial on demand to the net
> whenever one of the windows boxes requires external access.

Yep - using Diald or other similar packages.

> 4. Send faxes created and sent from one of the windows boxes.

Yep - using Hylafax.

> 5. Scan incoming emails for malicious content (viruses/scripts) and drop
> them if necessary.

Yep - a lot of commercial solutions here. Check Clam anti-virus if 
you're after a pure Open Source setup.

> 
> Thanks
> 
> BoF
> 
> 

For the purposes you've listed you'd be best looking at a distro like 
E-Smith, Clark Connect or Smoothwall.


BobT

> 

In alt.linux BoF <bof@bof.bof> wrote:
> Can a Linux server that has  two windows ME boxes be made to do the
> following.
> 
> 1. Acts as a central repository for all files (documents, spreadsheets, etc)

Yes, use 'samba' for this.

> 2. Can a MS-Outlook database be stored on the linux server and shared by the
> two windows boxes.

Yes, use 'fetchmail' to retrieve the mail from your ISP, and serve it to
the Outlook clients with an IMAP server (there are several).

> 3. Act as a gateway to the wider world with dial on demand to the net
> whenever one of the windows boxes requires external access.

Yes.  Standard 'pppd' supports dial-on-demand, the 2.2 and higher
kernels support masquerading/source NAT, and 'squid' can be used for web
proxying.

> 4. Send faxes created and sent from one of the windows boxes.

I don't have any personal experience with this, but I believe it is
possible.

> 5. Scan incoming emails for malicious content (viruses/scripts) and drop
> them if necessary.

Yes, after your mail is retrieved from the ISP, it will be delivered to
a local MTA ('exim', 'postfix', 'sendmail'...), and the MTA can be
configured to pass the mail to a virus scanner, using a package like
'amavis'.

	- Kevin.

> 
> Thanks
> 
> BoF
> 

> 1. Acts as a central repository for all files (documents, spreadsheets,
etc)
> 2. Can a MS-Outlook database be stored on the linux server and shared by
the
> two windows boxes.
> 3. Act as a gateway to the wider world with dial on demand to the net
> whenever one of the windows boxes requires external access.
> 4. Send faxes created and sent from one of the windows boxes.
> 5. Scan incoming emails for malicious content (viruses/scripts) and drop
> them if necessary.

The answer is YES.

Doing it all by hand is perfectly feasible, or you could use a "turnkey"
like Mitel server/gateway.


--
Cheers

Tony Smith

Connected to the internet in Sunny Far North Queensland Australia
http://www.tonsyl.org

> 
>> 2. Can a MS-Outlook database be stored on the linux server and shared by
>> the two windows boxes.
> 
> MS Outlook is an email client, not a database format. You'd better
> explain what you mean here.
> 
Sorry about the lack of information. My friend uses MS-Outlook to do all 
their contact management and all the other stuff that isnt really related 
to email. They actually have two computers networked and dont share the 
data from the 'database'(wrong term maybe) and have two sets of data, one 
on each PC. Can we set up outlook so that all the data is stored on the 
Linux Box (samba will do this) in one file that is accessible by both boxes 
and will do the file locking, etc that is necessary.

Thanks